Mother jailed for sendin children to a better school district.

Mother jailed for sending her children to a better school district. The link to the story from ABC news on Good Morning America is below.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/mom-jailed-for-sending-kids-to-better-school-12766049

When I saw this, I just shook my head. Every day I go to the school I work at and see bright, wonderful children that work hard for their teachers who in turn are bright, wonderful people that work hard to teach the students. This is my 2nd year working in this elementary. In this district, there are 4 elementary schools. The school that I work in, from the public opinion that I have heard, is not the best school in the county. The best school in the county is across town. Now I also worked in that elementary school for 4 years. I know the teachers there and many students. The teachers work hard, the students work hard, but there is not any difference in how much work is being done from either school. I know that parents do send their children to other school because it is considered a “better” school and quite frankly, it is bursting at the seams making class sizes increase. It has even brought debate over whether the district should re-examine districting for the 4 schools. This is what I think. Parents want the best education for the students. If every teacher, every principal, every school board member, every superintendent, and every parent is for this concept, then it shouldn’t matter what school the child is supposed to attend because that school is giving the best education available and that child will be successful. It takes the village to raise a child, so why doesn’t the village also help educate the child and quit trying to blame who hasn’t done their part when apparently it is everyone equally responsible.

Resource Classrooms

I am having a hard time understanding why my niece of the age of 13 and in eighth grade is to stay solely in the middle schools recourse classrooms. My niece is severely hearing impaired and I know that this is a huge disadvantage for her and I know that she is always going to need a lot of help. However, is this honestly the best way to do it? My niece is at a very hard age right now i.e, getting ready to transition into high school, puberty, among many other teenage "things". She has to wear her hearing aids at all times and also usually has to read lips because her hearing loss is in fact so profound. I am so scared of her being ridiculed and made fun of from her peers but does it really help her chances of being successful with making friends and keeping them if she is not aloud to interact in the regular classroom? Mrs. White do you believe that this is the best way for her to learn even though she is still not exactly on the eighth grade level?

Thanks! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Pragmatics

Can you think of a time when something funny, embarrassing, or serious happened to you regarding one of these pragmatic skills?

Phonemes

How does this video extend your thinking about phonemes?

Form/Syntax - Classroom Connection

How do these activities for the classroom connect to our discussion on morphemes in class?  In what ways does seeing these activities clarify or extend your understanding of how morphemes are taught in schools?  What questions do you still have?

Lack of Communication

Over the weekend I saw first hand how important communication can be, and how the lack of communication can have negative effects. My Grandfather was admitted into the hospital Friday morning around 9:00 am. No one called to inform me that he was in the hospital until almost 4:00 pm. Thankfully, it was nothing too serious and he is now back at home. However, the situation could have easily been worse and potentially caused tension between family members.

life-threatening disease

So, during class the other night, after we did the prefix and suffix exercise, Mrs. White gave a brief lecture on literacy and its importance today. Though this was not a huge part of her lesson, it kind of stuck with me because I'm also in ELE 445 this semester (Foundation of Reading/Language Arts) and during the first chapter there was a section on why reading was so important.

The paragraph states:
"the inability to read has been listed recently as a national health risk. The National Institutes of Health, an agency of the federal government, has recently registered reading disability or the inability to read on the nation's list of "life-threatening diseases" because of the devestating and far-reaching effects that reading failure has upon the quality of our citizens' lives."

Before either of these classes, I never would have thought illiteracy was considered a life-threatening disease.. But now, I guess it really is true. But then again, I dunno.

Is this surprising to anyone else?!
What do you guys think?

Class lastnight had such a close relationship with the Linguistics class I'm taking in ITP with KP (Karen Petronio) and might I say that the complexity of the English language, and even into the developement to signs through Stokoe's system is remarkable and really amazing from my perspective as a student. I apologize for the run-on sentence :))

Will we have any visitors this semester? Maybe a workshop class with a teacher of children with communication disabilities, a speech pathologist, a pannel of different people with experience etc. Might be an interesting idea for the end of the semester...#Imjustsayin

Mrs. White!
How bout a SIMCOM class for the ITP student that never hears English by a professor anymore! You did in the last class and I think it'd be refreshing!

Mrs. White, random question. This is my second class that I have with the privilege of you being my teacher :)) I noticed that you ALWAYS have a McCafe cup. Do you get the coffee before class or do you just keep the cup and refill it or what? I know its silly but I always wonder to myself and to be honest its a distraction lol. Clarification would be appreciated!

On my way home...

After class last night I drove back home to Ohio for the weekend. On the way there I got cut off and honked my horn at the car in front of me. I stopped and thought, man that was just communication. I did not have to say anything, sign anything, give a certain look or even make eye contact. The car in front of me knew I was honking at him and why I was honking. Who knew we communicated that much...

-Ashley O

SNOW DAY!

EKU has cancelled classes for this evening!!  Enjoy your "Snow Day!"  I will post some links and discussion questions here on the blog this week relative to the topics we will discuss next week.  We'll have A LOT to learn!!  We will hit the ground running next week to ensure we lay the groundwork for syntax, semantics and pragmatics - the three BIG IDEAS we'll address this semester.

New Post

Feel free to add a NEW POST with your own topic, question, idea, etc. relative to this semester.  You can do that once you sign in by click on the NEW POST link in the top right hand corner.

I look forward to seeing how creative and inquisitive you are with your posts and comments to one another!

Mrs. White

Welcome to the Class Blog

Welcome to our Class Blog! It will be used in a variety of ways to extend course content.  It is open to YOU to find creative ways to use it to solidify and extend your own learning!!!  

Topics discussed in class will be discussed and explored here through your interaction and sharing with one another.  Questions relative to class material and assignments are welcome here.  Information relative to tests will be posted here such as sample questions and model answers.  

Posting to the blog - either your own initial posts, responding to others or a combination of the two is a REQUIRED part of the course and a part of your overall grade.  You are required to post each month of the semester and it is most beneficial to you and your peers if you take time to do this at least once weekly.

Get started by posting a brief introduction of yourself!  Please include your major, years at EKU and home town/state.  You may include other information about you, your family, future goals, etc.